I received the MSc degree in Chemistry from Vienna University of Technology, Austria and the PhD degree in Physics from the University of Vienna, Austria. From 2005-2008 I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Physics at the Harvard University, USA. In 2007 I became member of the German Young Academy (JA) at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina. Currently, I am an Assistant-Professor, at the University of Vienna. My current research interests include: the experimental investigation of fundamental principles in quantum physics and to realize quantum-enhanced applications such as quantum communication, quantum computation and quantum metrology using quantum states of light.
I participated in the fourth IAP Young Scientist Conference held in conjunction with the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of New Champions (Dalian, 211) representing Germany as a young scientist. My participation in this event allowed me to meet members of the Global Young Academy (GYA) and to get insight into the activities. Based on my background as a current member of the JA I got motivated to contribute to the aim of the GYA to unlock the potential of young scientists from around the world and to support initiatives at the interface between science and society.
The fascination of a young scientist community without national boarders arose already a few years ago, when representing the JA and its projects as the prototype for other national academies at the meeting of the European Federation of National Academies of Sciences and Humanities. Since then I became strongly motivated to initiate and lead various outreach activities. Among these were research presentations to pupils at high-schools and at dedicated summer courses at the University of Vienna, as well as public panelist discussions. Clearly, the IAP conference will act as an additional stimulation to pursue my activities for national and global collaborations between academy, industry and society.